BasicSpace

Sunday, October 21, 2012

This article details the extreme lengths an animal activist, Jacqueline Traide, went to to display the horrific testing animals can be subjected to in the name of cosmetic companies. She was placed in a street window and under went ten hours of testing, undergoing the same test that are carried out on animals.

Basically just going to link the article so you can see for yourself, it is pretty harrowing and will hopefully convince a few more people to take the time to look for the 'NOT TESTED ON ANIMALS'. It's really not that hard to do.

Monday, July 30, 2012

This site fantastically combines photography and sustainability so has won me over. It deals with extreme environmental issues through videos, photos and talks but also allows us to see the beauty of the world through a vast collection of photos from all over the world, from many photographers. The site also shares the sort of ideas I am looking for in my future flat such as this fantastic idea for a candle....

I am aware candles are not really necessary and also do not substitute for heaters, but really, this is a great idea. The wick is the white stem left at the bottom of the orange. Simply fill with cooking oil and coat the wick, done.

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Vice is generally blocked on my fantastic (sarcasm) university browser, but by some excellent screw up it has recently become accessible. Yes Vice does specialise in stranger blog posts, but everyone of these extremely twisted stories is written by very talented writers. This why I was stoked to come across a more environmental post about the North Pacific Gyre. This is an area of the ocean where currents circulate around a continuous high pressure zone and therefore result in a windless and essential 'nothing' zone. Because this area is basically known as a vortex it is mostly avoided by passing ships, which is why it took us ignorant suckers a while to discover some substantial proof for how bad we're fucking up.

The biggest problem with this place is that most of the crap we throw into the ocean without further thought, will most likely end up here. In the beginning this did not matter as most of what we threw away was biodegradable so could be broken down and feasted on by plankton. However, as we all know, we no longer live in a biodegradable consumerist world. So, of course, this death trap is now full of plastic and everything else we apparently cannot place in a bin.

"Over time plastic will photodegrade all the way down to the individual polymers, but those little guys are still in it for the long haul. This means that except for the slim handful of plastics designed specifically to biodegrade, every synthetic molecule ever made still exists."

The best part of this article (and the worse part, I guess) is that where the plastic is broken down small enough it is ingested by jellyfish in this area, which results in this plastic slowly making its way up the food chain until it hits us in the face or more importantly in the intestines. I had read about this dead zone before, but seeing it written from the point of view of a Vice writer was something else. You can see him trying to drop in jokes and attempting to find the funny side, but the truth remains. This situation is simply too fucked up to not be taken seriously.

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Began my course in Architecture this year, which included one paper on sustainability. I was one of the few happy with this paper, while others merely saw it as a waste of time. This may have been because of a vague course outline set by tutors not entirely sure where they should begin. The idea itself is an obvious step for a course such as architecture, of course we need to start building for our environment. The paper requires some tweaks, but as it is a new paper improvements can be expected for future first years.

Climate change has always been something that sits at the back of my mind as I am sure it does in most people's minds. Before my first lecture in this course it never really hit me how incredibly serious it is. My father is a greenie so I like to think I do a little bit for the environment, or at least am not damaging it further. In our first lecture we were shown this Youtube video: Home.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqxENMKaeCU

This video is long, I am aware, but it is also very effective in its delivery of all the facts of our decaying environment that we're trying to avoid. I was unimpressed when the video ended stating the steps we're taking to help the environment. Yes it is good that people are actually making attempts to save the world, but a dire end could be far more effective in actually making people get off their asses and doing something, anything.

So this is just a wee rant, most probably where this blog is headed to give my (lack of followers) an idea what is to come. Also I believe the people around me are getting sick of my constant talk of this subject so this is what blogs are for right? Whether anyone reads this or not, I am happy enough to put it out there.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

I have been a fan for years, went to their Auckland concert at Vector Arena in 2007 and simply fell in love. Infatuated... Maybe, obssessed? Is it odd that I was geniually distraught for days when I discovered they had stayed in a hotel in my home town and I hadn't realised? Either way, the Chilis have always overloaded my Ipod and dominated my 25 Most Played as the band I always can come back to.

Commonly they can be an under rated band because many do not realise how many genres their work spans over, they're a lot more then 'Hump De Bump'. I'll most likely blog about them more because they're the band I'll aways love even though I don't listen to them as fanatically as I used to. Despite not liking the song I just mentioned, I do love Stadium Arcadium. In 'We Believe' Anthony sings "The risk is it worth it?/ The disc is it perfect?" While the double disc set is not quite perfect, it is still adding to their repetoire. One of the reasons I still listen to this album over and over is that it has many rocky songs that have echoes of their punk past, but still has many slower, lower songs that are so great to stew your life over to. Blood Sugar Sex Magik was amazing, but Under the Bridge was not enough. Add Soul to Squeeze onto the track listing and I would have been sold. Stadium keeps me there with Slow Cheetah, Strip My Mind, She Looks to Me and Snow (Hey Oh). Yeah, so I blogged about the Chilis mostly because I found this amazing picture of Anthony but now I've just distracted myself so I'll probs go listen to them now...

It looks to me like Heaven
Sent this for your roughest night
She looks to me, she looks to me, alright.

Who's going to take you home
And hold you when things aren't so bright
She looks to me, she looks to me, alright.

Just to start this off, I love photography, especially film photography. I bought my own Olympus OM-1 about one and a half years ago off Trademe, best purchase I've ever made. Here's a selection of my favourite pictures I've taken with it.